For the sake of conciseness and simplicity...

For the sake of conciseness and simplicity, the connection between two narrators in a chain is simply shown using the word ‘from.’ For instance, if the chain is ‘X narrated to me that Y heard Z say’ it has been written as ‘From X, from Y, from Z.’ Phrases like: ‘Allah’s blessings be on him and his family’ and ‘peace be on him/her’ have not been abbreviated as is customary in some translations.

The word ‘father’ which is written as ‘Abū, Abā, and Abī’ in Arabic, is only written as ‘Abū’ in the translation, except in places where it is preceded by b. or ibn in a compound name. In such cases Abī is used in conformance with the Arabic pronunciation, e.g. Ali b. Abī Ṭālib or ibn Abī l-Ḥadīd. ‘He says’ is usually used to refer to the author of the last book mentioned, e.g. “Faraj al-mahmūm, p. 247, he says: ‘A section about what we have narrated . .

.’” After some of the references in the footnotes, ‘short version’ has been written. This means that the reference points to a shorter version of the same tradition mentioned in the main text.

The transliteration used is in accordance with the following table: Symbol Transliteration Symbol Transliteration ء ‘ ط ṭ Long: ب B ظ ẓ ا، آ ت T ع ` و ث Th غ gh ی ج J ف f Short: ح ḥ ق q _َ خ kh ک k _ُ د d ل l ذ dh م m Diphthongs: ر r ن n أو ز z ه h أی س s و w ش sh ی y ص ṣ ة a, at ض ḍ ال al-, l- Since we are fallible, it is inevitable that we will make mistakes. If you find any in the current book please inform us so they can be corrected in future versions. Finally, I would like to thank Mr.

Mr Abdol-Hossein Taleie for his useful suggestions during the reviewing process and Ali Mansouri for proofreading the draft. The editor can be contacted through h.akhoondali@yahoo.com .…